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NBC Direct Launches With Free Downloads
thefickler writes "It's here, and it's no joke. NBC has launched NBC Direct where most shows can be watched online and some shows are available for full episode downloads. This comes after NBC decided to pull out of iTunes." For now it's Windows only, XP or Vista, IE 6 or 7.
Until there is support for Firefox, Mac, Linux etc...
"we've got trenchcoats and bad attitudes" - John Constantine, HellBlazer
If its DRM restricted its not free. In beer or in Speech. Windows DRM means you have to pay for Windows which means that somewhere MS Gets a cut. So yes, your paying for it. And yes, Apples's DRM is no Better. I maintain my stance DRM has no right to exist, and DRM should be resisted by any means necessary. I want to live in a DRM free future no matter the cost.
I don't mind the streaming, so long as the pinheads involved allow buffering and caching. If a video is taking too long from Youtube, you can pause it and let it buffer the damn thing. The CBS innertube wouldn't do this, and gods was it annoying getting a word every five seconds. That was for the mandatory ad, I gave up on the whole thing after that.
As an aside, the only videos I see with Windows DRM are porn spam that use a 'feature' of WMP to take you to a website for licenses and malware.
And this is exactly why the writers are now on strike. They get nothing from the distribution online while the broadcasting companies gets all the income generated from ads, etc. But even worst: they get nothing from the distribution on DVD in some cases.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
Hello NBC,
I'm from Europe and I have one XP and two linux PCs. And your marketing department seems to be utterly clueless as to how they ever could target me via advertisements on a webpage or embedded in a video. And selling your old TV series to European TV stations years later does no cut it.
Yet any localized Google homepage shows me unobtrusive ads that are relevant to my search queries and geographical location. Times are changing NBC. Adapt or die.
Signed,
A user from Europe who wants to buy cheap American stuff.
So here are your downloading options...
1) Goto BitTorrent... where new shows pop up right after they air, download speeds are insanely fast, there are no ads, there is no DRM, and I can get video that will play on whatever computer or device I want.
2) Goto NBC... where new shows pop up at 2am, I'm downloading from one source, there are ads, lots of ads, there is DRM, lots of DRM, and I can only play video on a Vista or XP computer.
NBC doesn't seem to realize that a conveniance based model has more opportunities for growth. Time after time the internet has favored those who have figured out how to make a profit by catering to conveniance.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
...but still a ways to go. Before everyone jumps on the bandwagon about it being Pro-IE/Pro-DRM, at least give credit to the fact that its yet another step in the right direction with offering downloads.. They're trying it out, and I think will find it will be a success... Perhaps next ABC/CBS will follow this lead and knock out a little more of the restrictions, say opening to any browser, or removing the DRM. When it comes to big corporations, changes come small and slow. This is defiantly a good thing, lets just hope it continues down this path.
Oh for gods sake people. Just watch the damned episodes if you can. If you can't then email NBC and tell them why (Doesn't work under Mac. Doesn't work under Linux. Doesn't work with my browser. etc.)
If you just whinge here on slashdot and don't watch the episodes then you're not going to appear in their statistics. You -want- to appear in their statistics. Tell your friends about it. Get people to watch stuff. Whining about it not working -just right- for your situation doesn't help.
You -want- the statistics to reflect that there's interest in this service. You -want- the executives to notice that people are using it, that there's non-windows people using it, that people are actually providing constructive feedback to them. Sheesh!
It works with Fedora 7 and Firefox. I am enjoying The Tonight Show.
Excellent timing! The perfect time to launch this is during a writers' strike where they are trying to be justly paid for such downloadable content.
Kind of makes a mockery of the studios argument, namely: giving this stuff away free on the net is just worthless promotional material. If that's truly the case, why not just give it away free? i.e. no DRM, and no region nor software restrictions.
Or might it be that the studios are... lying?
The criteria for something to be 'free' according to you, then are:
- It has to be accessible to everyone on the planet
- It has to cost nothing to everyone on the planet
- It has to be obtainable conveniently to everyone on the planet
Thanks for the clarification. I was using the archaic definition of free, meaning "something I can get for nothing".
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
Someone should explain that NBC is BROADCASTING the content. A few minutes after it's aired it's sent on the bittorrent channel. So I guess we outside of USA just have to do with top quality easy to download TV-series without any ads until the TV-show producers figure out how to distribute their shows on their own.
Since you can't transfer it
... Yet ...
...Until DVD Jon or similar gets annoyed by that...
and you have to watch it within 48 hours of downloading
those times and places where you're "not likely to have internet access" are a bit limited.
Jokes aside, I'd say that NBC has finally seen the light - The future of the Internet doesn't look like TV, as traditional media execs always hoped; More that the future of TV looks like YouTube.
If NBC has finally "gotten" it, good for them. This first laughable attempt at giving people what they want may have a few flaws. I don't know, I won't use it even having a capable machine, because I don't watch anything on NBC (used to watch The Office until they turned it into a tedious little soap opera; and SNL, well, TiVo'd I'll watch part of it, but if they won't let you skip commercials, they probably don't let you skip the 90% of really dumb sketches, either). But still, good to see them trying.
I know that you can watch ABC shows in Firefox/Safari on Mac OS X and Firefox/IE on MS Windows. Though sadly they don't support Firefox under Linux. I don't know why though, as it is mostly flash.
Two operating systems and 3 browsers for ABC's service is way better than MS Windows only and IE only with NBC's half-@ssed effort.
General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
That's why it's a beta. If you like the concept and want to see it succeed, send them some feedback on your experience (if you haven't already). Nothing is worse than good concepts getting killed for lack of interest, and I'd rather not see this become one of those.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard